Pakistani cannibals accused of eating child they dug out of grave less than a year after getting out of prison

KHAWAR KALAN, Pakistan — Two brothers arrested for the second time over accusations of cannibalism appeared in court Tuesday, police officials said, in a sensational case that has horrified Pakistanis.

A judge in an anti-terrorism court in Sargodha district ordered Farman Ali and Arif Ali detained for a week pending an initial investigation, police officer Zafar Iqbal said. They were arrested on Monday on suspicion of eating bodies they had dug up in a nearby graveyard.

Police also recovered a pan they believe was used to cook the body parts, said officer Waseem Abass.

AP Photo/M.I. Haq

EPA/ISRAR HAQ

Police raided the brothers’ house in central Pakistan after neighbours complained of a horrible stench. Some neighbours also grew suspicious after seeing one of the men in the graveyard, police said.

Authorities found body parts including a skull that may have belonged to a child in the house and detained one of them, Iqbal said. The second brother was arrested later on Monday, following a search of the area.

Police have sent the body parts to a lab for further testing.

The men were previously imprisoned for two years on charges related to digging up bodies, cooking and eating them in 2011, said Iqbal. They were released last summer.

Under Pakistani law cannibalism is not a crime so the men had been charged with, and were convicted of, dehumanizing a body.